1774
in Tsarskoe Selo, commemorating the end of the Russo-Turkish War.]] Year 1774 (MDCCLXXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1774 January - June * January 21 - Mustafa III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire dies and is succeeded by his brother Abd-ul-Hamid I. * March 31 - Intolerable Acts: The British Parliament passes the Boston Port Act, closing the port of Boston as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. * May 10 - Louis XVI becomes King of France. * June 2 - Intolerable Acts: A new Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to provide better housing for British soldiers upon demand, is passed. * June 11 - Jews in Algiers escape the attack of the Spanish army. July - December * July 21 - Russo-Turkish War: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending six years of war. The treaty does give Russia the right to intervene in Ottoman politics to protect its Christian subjects. * 1 August - The element oxygen is discovered for the third (and last) time—the second quantitatively following the somewhat earlier work of Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1771-1772)— by Joseph Priestley who publishes the fact in 1775 and so named the element and usually gets all the credit. * September 5 - the First Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia. * September 21 - George Mason and George Washington found the Fairfax County Militia Association, a military unit independent of British control. * October 14 - Document Congress in America Adpoted-Decloration and Resolves. * October 21 - First display of the word "Liberty" on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton and which was in defiance of British rule in Colonial America. Undated * The British pass the Quebec Act setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America. * To avoid severe flooding, Martinsborough, North Carolina is moved to higher ground three miles west. The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Martinsborough as the new county seat of Pitt County, three years after its founding. * German cobbler Johann Birkenstock creates the first Birkenstock sandals. Births * February 11 - Hans Jarta, Swedish political activist and administrator (d. 1847) * February 24 - Prince Adolphus (d. 1850) * March 9 - Mayhew Folger, whaler, captain of Topaz (ship), rediscovered Pitcairn Islands in 1808 (d. 1828) * March 16 - Captain Matthew Flinders, English explorer (d. 1814) * July 20 - Auguste Marmont, French marshal (d. 1852) * August 12 - Robert Southey, English poet and biographer (d. 1843) * August 28 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, co-founder of Mount Saint Mary's University, founder of the Sisters of Charity (d. 1821) * September 5 - Caspar David Friedrich, German artist (d. 1840) * September 26 - Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman), nurseryman/missionary planted apple-tree nurseries in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (d. 1847) *''date unknown'' - Sergei Nikolayevich Glinka - Russian author, brother of Fedor Nikolaevich Glinka (d. 1847) : See also 1774 births. Deaths *January 21 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717) *February 4 - Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (b. 1701) *April 4 - Oliver Goldsmith, English writer (b. 1730) *May 4 - Anthony Ulrich II (b. 1714) *May 10 - King Louis XV of France (b. 1710) *July 1 - Henry Fox, English statesman (b. 1705) *July 11 - Sir William Johnson, Irish-born New York pioneer *July 14 - James O'Hara, British field marshal (b. 1682) *August 11 - Tiphaigne de la Roche, French writer (b. 1722) *August 14 - Johann Jakob Reiske, German scholar and physician (b. 1716) *August 25 - Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714) *September 22 - Pope Clement XIV (b. 1705) *September 25 - John Bradstreet, Canadian-born soldier (b. 1714) *October 23 - Michel Benoist, French Jesuit missionary and scientist (b. 1715) *November 22 - Robert Clive, British general and statesman (b. 1725) *December 2 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (b. 1720) *December 16 - François Quesnay, French economist (b. 1694) : See also 1774 deaths.